Your files and details, explained.

Author submissions include contact details, book metadata, copyright confirmations, manuscript and ebook files, and payout country and entity type. Reader questionnaires contain an email address and answers. Purchases contain a buyer email, payment reference and sale records. Contact messages contain the information you choose to provide. Hosting providers also process technical request and security data.

We use these details to provide assessment, publication, ebook delivery, royalties and support; fulfil contracts; meet accounting and legal obligations; and protect the service against fraud and misuse. Public listings display book metadata, covers, literary assessments and aggregate reader ratings. Author contact emails and individual reader answers are not published.

Assessment manuscripts and reader questionnaire content are processed using OpenAI’s API. API inputs and outputs are not used for model training by OpenAI by default. The House of Lit does not train its own models on your work. API providers may retain operational or abuse-monitoring data under their own policies. Uploaded assessment files are removed from OpenAI when completed results are synchronised, where cleanup succeeds; incomplete assessments can retain files longer. See OpenAI’s API data controls.

Cloudflare hosts the site, database and private manuscript storage. Buyers receive protected download links after payment confirmation. Stripe processes payment and payout onboarding details; we retain Stripe references and account status, not full card or bank details. These providers may process data internationally under their applicable data-protection arrangements.

Book files are retained while a submission is being assessed or listed, and while required to deliver copies to existing buyers. We retain manuscript fingerprints and review-history records to recognise resubmissions and apply the one-free-review-per-book rule, including after withdrawal. Withdrawal stops public listing and new sales; it does not automatically erase records or remove existing buyers’ download access. Contact requests are retained while needed for support and related records. Accounting, dispute and legally required records may need longer retention. Contact us to request deletion or a review of what is retained.

Authentication and payment providers may use cookies required for their services. With your permission, we load the Google Ads tag (AW-477885755) to measure visits from adverts on public discovery and information pages. Personalised advertising and enhanced conversions are disabled in our tag configuration. The tag is not loaded on submission, private author management, checkout or individual book pages. We do not pass author or buyer emails, manuscripts, questionnaire answers or private management tokens to this tag. Google may receive information about your browser, device and visits and use advertising cookies. The tag is not loaded until you accept advertising cookies. We honour Global Privacy Control by blocking this tag. Your dated preference and the version of the consent wording are saved in your browser for up to 180 days, after which we ask again. You can decline or change your choice using “Cookie preferences” at the bottom of any page. Submission details are saved in your browser only if you select “Save my draft on this device”. Files and rights confirmations are not saved in that draft. You can clear it from the submission form. Private author management links act as access keys: keep them confidential.

You may request access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability of personal data, or object to relevant processing, subject to applicable law. Use the contact form and choose “Privacy or personal data”. You can also raise concerns with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. We do not send marketing emails simply because you submitted a book.